Artificial intelligence: radiologists’ expectations and opinions gleaned from a nationwide online survey

Purpose: To report the results of a nationwide online survey on artificial intelligence (AI) among radiologist members of the Italian Society of Medical and Interventional Radiology (SIRM). Methods and materials: All members were invited to the survey as an initiative by the Imaging Informatics Chapter of SIRM. The survey consisted of 13 questions about the participants’ demographic information, perceived advantages and issues related to AI implementation in radiological practice, and their overall opinion about AI. Results: In total, 1032 radiologists (equaling 9.5% of active SIRM members for the year 2019) joined the survey. Perceived AI advantages included a lower diagnostic error rate (750/1027, 73.0%) and optimization of radiologists’ work (697/1027, 67.9%). The risk of a poorer professional reputation of radiologists compared with non-radiologists (617/1024, 60.3%), and increased costs and workload due to AI system maintenance and data analysis (399/1024, 39.0%) were seen as potential issues. Most radiologists stated that specific policies should regulate the use of AI (933/1032, 90.4%) and were not afraid of losing their job due to it (917/1032, 88.9%). Overall, 77.0% of respondents (794/1032) were favorable to the adoption of AI, whereas 18.0% (186/1032) were uncertain and 5.0% (52/1032) were unfavorable. Conclusions: Radiologists had a mostly positive attitude toward the implementation of AI in their working practice. They were not concerned that AI will replace them, but rather that it might diminish their professional reputation.